So what we want to do is fine-tune that special characteristic of the light so it shines back and it doesn't absorb into the material and cause damage.

NPR: Using Science to Rescue Art

The Yuki-tsumugi technique is employed to produce pongee silk (also called raw silk) - a light and warm material with a characteristic stiffness and softness, traditionally used to make kimonos.

UNESCO: Culture

It is an interesting triple "coincidence, " which probably evolved over time, that our eyes are most sensitive to yellow-green light, which happens to be the characteristic color of sunlight as well as the color that can most easily be transmitted through the Earth's atmosphere.

CNN: Why gamma-ray burst shocked scientists

But as the first stars condensed out of the newly formed atoms, the heat and light they produced would have started to tickle the hydrogen clouds around them into emitting radio signals at a characteristic wavelength of 21cm.

ECONOMIST: Radio telescopes